Celeste Ng

Lydia is dead. But they don't know this yet. So begins the story about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee; their middle daughter, a girl who inherited her mother's bright blue eyes and her father's jet-black hair. Her parents are determined that Lydia will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue -- in Marilyn's case, that her daughter become a doctor rather than a homemaker;...

Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving but broken father. For a decade, their lives have been governed by laws written to preserve “American culture” in the wake of years of economic instability and violence. To keep the peace and restore prosperity, the authorities are now allowed to relocate children of dissidents, especially those of Asian origin, and libraries have been forced to remove books seen as unpatriotic—including...

-- Little Fires Everywhere  “Riveting, tender, and timely.” — -- Oprah Daily “Thought-provoking, heart-wrenching . . . I was so invested in the future of this mother and son.” —Reese Witherspoon (Reese’s Book Club Pick)  Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving father, a former linguist who now shelves books in a university library. His mother, Margaret, a Chinese American poet, left without a trace when...

Jennifer Egan and best-selling Celeste Ng come together for a compelling discussion of their new novels, Manhattan Beach and Little Fires Everywhere, two stories of family secrets and the children who discover them. Performances by Cindy Cheung (Mistress America) and Susannah Rogers (The Diary of a Teenage Girl).